


What Night Brings the Dawn

by Gerec



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Dark Mage!Erik, Enemy Lovers, M/M, Paladin!Charles, Soul Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 11:45:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14111658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerec/pseuds/Gerec
Summary: High Lord Xavier's duty is clear - he must execute the greatest enemy of his Order, to ensure lasting peace for the troubled kingdom of Genosha. But the Divine of Eternal Night is both adversary and bondmate, and the ties that bind are not so easily broken...





	What Night Brings the Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally intended as a short ficlet for a prompt I received on tumblr, but has somehow turned into a much longer one-shot with alternating POV. 
> 
> Prompt: “Kiss me or kill me. It’s your choice.”

_Charles_

The clanging of his plate armor echoed as he descended the stairs, announcing his arrival to the knights stationed outside the prisoner’s cell. They were the best of his personal retinue, the vanguard of his paladin brothers and sisters of the Order of Light, and the only ones trusted to contain the evil within.

They saluted on his approach, and Jean stepped forward to greet him, setting herself squarely between Charles and the cell door. He had to admire her bravery for trying to stop him, and only smiled bemusedly as she fumbled her words.

“My Lord, what brings you down to the dungeon at this late hour?”

They were all staring at him, no doubt taking in the lack of a weapon in his hand, the great sword Lightbringer that Charles had carried since he took up the mantle of High Lord. He could sense their concern and no small amount of fear; that he would choose to confront such a formidable adversary without it, the most powerful relic they possessed against the forces of Eternal Night.

Charles could hardly tell them the truth of it; that he needed no weapon, and no protection from the enemy within.

“Leave us,” he ordered, and when they hesitated, he added, “report to my sister and Logan and tell them we are not to be disturbed. You may return to your post in one hour. Go _now_.”

It was forceful enough to send them scurrying away, and Charles took a deep breath before he cast the spell, disabling the wards that he’d set around the prison cell. He waited until he was sure that the others had gone, and then opened the door slowly, the hinges creaking loudly in the oppressive silence that followed.

The single occupant of the cell was propped against the far corner, bound by chains of holy magic that wound around his body nearly head to toe. Their golden hue pulsed against the haze of purple that swirled endlessly from the man’s skin, a constant duel for control as he tried fruitlessly to break free. Charles’ heart ached at the sight of it, as the Light’s magic seared wounds into flesh that the Darkness continuously mended.  

“If it isn’t the High Lord himself,” the prisoner sneered, venom dripping from his words as Charles edged ever closer. “Or should I call you ‘Lord Xavier’? What _should_ I call the man that finally bested me in battle? The man who now holds my fate and the fate of my kingdom in his hands.”

Charles grimaced and shook his head. “Genosha does not belong to you, Erik. Nor to me. Her fate is in the hands of the people and their Queen. It was never yours, no matter your intentions, good or ill.”

Erik laughed, a bitter likeness of a once familiar refrain. “Still so righteous, Charles, and so full of insufferable pride. You damn yourself and Genosha with your lies! Don’t try and twist the truth with your pretty words…not with me. I have long become immune to your particular charms.”

“That may be true,” Charles replied, as he knelt before the Betrayer, and cradled Erik’s face gently between his hands. “But I will never stop loving you, or grieving for you. Come back to the Light, Erik, and return to your rightful place at my side.”

Erik scoffed, and shook himself loose from Charles’ grasp. “Kiss me or kill me. It’s your choice. But spare me any more of your false pity. My eyes are opened now, and I will never again be blinded by the Light.”

“Please, Erik—“

“No, Charles. Leave me now, as you left me long ago.”

The words were punctuated with a burst of foul magic, strong enough to knock Charles clear across the room. The pain burned through his defenses and pierced every inch of him, powered by the souls’ bond that yet tied them together.

He sent a wave of healing through his body, and then got up from the hard stone floor.

“You are scheduled for execution on the morrow,” he said, turning away from one who had been friend, brother, and life’s mate. “I’m sorry that it’s come to this, my love.”

If Erik answered, he didn’t hear it, as Charles locked the door behind him and activated the wards, his ears ringing with the long ago promise of two squires on the cusp of manhood…

_I shall stay with you always, no matter the path you follow._

 

* * *

 

_Erik_

Charles returned to the cell only hours later, near the break of dawn.

He would have sneered if there was any energy left in his body; if hours being bound by Charles’ magic had not drained Erik of his strength and his mana. Hours he had fought against the chains that bound him in this forsaken place, a roiling rage in his gut at the injustice wrought by the man who betrayed him.

“What do you want, Charles?”

It was early yet for his execution; if he knew their ways – and he certainly did, having been a Knight Commander once, long ago – they would wait until mid-day for the Gathering, when all would assemble and bear witness to his fate. The Order of Light was ever prone to grand symbolic gestures, meaningless drivel that filled Erik now with nothing but disgust and bitter loathing.

Charles hesitated for long moments, conflict writ across his face, and then he was there again at Erik’s side, wrapping gentle arms around his battered body. The magic that had tormented him abruptly disappeared; gone was the endless, agonizing pain with no more than a hurried whisper.

He would have returned the favor gladly, if he wasn’t too weak to stand on his own two feet.

Charles cradled him where he lay and waited patiently for Erik to catch his breath, staring wordlessly as though to memorize every last curve and line of his face. He supposed that was exactly why the man was here, given their last encounter - to assuage his guilt with a few last stolen moments with his bond mate.

It only made Erik angrier, and he wanted nothing more than to shatter Charles Xavier into a million pieces, the same way he’d broken a youthful Erik’s heart. Instead, he grabbed Charles and crushed their lips in a bruising kiss, pouring every ounce of anger and resentment and hopeless love he still carried…

So Charles would never forget what they had, and what he’d given up for the Order.

He did not expect Charles to lean in and deepen their kiss, moaning softly as Erik grappled clumsily with the straps of his chest plate. Their kiss was no gentle thing, as befitting two on opposing sides of a war; no, they battled even now, taking one another apart with rough hands and brutal strokes, until they lay breathless and panting on the cold dungeon floor.

“Happy?” Erik asked, when it was over and Charles was pulling his tunic back over his head. He left his armor in pieces on the ground, and handed Erik’s robes to him without comment. “Now that you got what you came for?”

The words were deliberately harsh and meant to provoke, but Charles only looked at him with sad eyes, as though he had been the one to suffer at Erik’s hands. A great swell of hatred threatened to overwhelm him then – for Charles, for the Order, and the cruel hand of fate that had torn them apart.

“No, Erik,” Charles replied, “I didn’t come here for--. I came to let you go.”

Erik laughed. “Surely, even you are not so cruel, Charles? To bait me with false hope, when you were the one to order my execution?”

“You said I betrayed you, and perhaps I did at that. For when you called on me I did not follow…my loyalty—“

“Means nothing,” Erik snapped, “nor do your promises hold any weight. I will play no games with you, Lord Xavier. Do you truly mean to let me go?”

“Yes.”

“And how will you accomplish that? Even the High Lord cannot hope to walk out of here with the Order’s greatest enemy at his side.”

Erik knew that they were deep within the bowels of the Grand Chapel, where the best of the Order’s paladins presided. Even his most gifted followers could not penetrate the inner sanctum, and mount a successful rescue of their Night’s Divine.

“You won’t need an escort,” Charles said, and Erik felt it then - the sudden jolt of a rejuvenation spell washing over him like a tidal wave. His mana restored, he could feel the magic surge like lightning through his veins, the might of the elements once again under his command.

He summoned a glimmering portal then with a simple wave of his hand.

“Any debts owed, any betrayals between us…consider the slate wiped clean,” Charles continued, his expression void now of all emotion. It was goodbye then, to what was, and what could never be again; they would meet only as enemies on the battlefield, their bond forever sundered for a destiny of their own choosing.

“Charles—”

“No, Erik,” Charles interrupted with a shake of his head. He looked so much like the boy Erik loved long ago, before the mantle of High Lord turned him into something cold and unfeeling. “Don’t ask me to go with you.”

Erik couldn’t help it – he laughed and laughed at Charles’ arrogance and naivety; his belief that Erik would play by the rules of his blighted Order.

That he would _ask_ , when his nature was simply to _take_ what he wanted.

The spell hit Charles by surprise and knocked him unconscious, though Erik was there to catch him as he fell. He was easy enough to carry without the weight of his heavy armor, and Erik took great care to lift him gently into his arms.

He stepped through the glowing portal then, and vanished without a trace.


End file.
